RWBY Years Later
by Shake N. Bake Mormon
Summary: A retrospective on each volume of RWBY by the standards of today. Inspired by Raycevick's "Halo... years later" series. Please Read & Review. Sorry if the title made you expect some sort of 'main characters all grown up' kind of story. Updates when I feel like it. Goodbye, RWBY Fanbase. See you starside. (Made a better finale)
1. Volume 1: Four Years Later

Hello, everyone. Welcome to my new series, RWBY Years Later. In this story, I'll take a look at each volume of RWBY and look at it with the standards of today's RWBY to see how far the series has come, with what each volume did well and what they tripped up on. Of course, the first chapter is the first volume, so let's get right into it.

THE HYPE

RWBY may have premiered in 2013, but that was far from the beginning. RWBY was first announced in early 2013, and with the team behind Red Vs. Blue, the second-longest-running sci-fi series in history, working on it, with Monty Oum as producer, the hype reached incredible levels before trailers even got released. At the time I'm writing this, the Red Trailer has 12.9 million views on YouTube, and people didn't even wait until the Yellow trailer before making fanfiction, as the oldest fanfic on this site came out almost a week before the "Black" Trailer came out on YouTube. And yes, it's a White Rose fic.

The point is, the amount of anticipation for the volume was tremendous, but this wasn't even the peak of its popularity. Add in the "Anime or not" debates that still continue to this day, and you have a VERY large audience with VERY high expectations. Now, not being part of that initial fanbase and having only learned of the series thanks to the Yang v. Tifa death battle, I can't say for certain whether it disappointed fans at the time, but for me, I have to say the volume was definitely a disappointment from what I expected. But it wasn't all bad.

THE THEME

Now, I'm mostly going to focus on the music aspect of the opening theme, as that's generally the most important part. As for the animation, it's mediocre to say the least. This may be my opinion, and it may be unique, but I personally feel like the Volume 1 theme was rather cringey, even on its own merit with no reference to the other volumes. I say this due to the tune, mostly, but also the lyrics themselves. Part way in, the tune completely changes before immediately changing back again, for almost no reason whatsoever. It's not even a payoff to a build up; it just kinda... changes for a sec. But that's just my opinion, anyway.

To tell the truth, I had to look up the lyrics because I really just couldn't understand them, but once I learned them... well, the volume 1 theme is FAR from up to par with any of the others, and except for possibly volume 5, I feel it has to be the worst. Of course, this wouldn't be the first turn-off moment in the series, because as is the case with all season premieres, the theme comes at the end of the episode. To get to this point, you had to watch the entire pilot episode.

THE PILOT

While not completely terrible, the series pilot leaves much to be desired. After world building exposition from the voice of Cortana from Halo, which violates the ever-famous 'show don't tell' rule with questionable results, we cut to Roman Torchwick, as well as some mobsters and a few... silhouettes. Yes, silhouettes. As many, if not all of you, already may know, the first season, whether for want to save budget or lack thereof, silhouetted any and all background characters. If you saw someone with a face, they were going to be important, guaranteed. That or a shopkeep. But I digress.

Ruby, praise deus ex machina, is inside the store Roman is robbing, and beats up the bad guys in a fight scene that definitely disappoints compared to the "Red" Trailer. After the property damage she causes, she gets in trouble, and instead of being punished, she's sent to her dream school ahead of time, much like 90% of RWBY OCs. And then we take the time to meet the important characters in a way that kind of makes sense but is very coincidental to say the least.

THE MELODRAMA

Initiation seems to go off without a hitch, but almost immediately after, viewers are treated to the series' first melodrama, Ruby v. Weiss. This drama is poorly executed, in my opinion, with Weiss very much going out of her way to disagree with Ruby's methods. She offered Weiss advice and Weiss shut her down, almost at her own expense. After the pointlessness of the arc, the melodrama is resolved in a way that is actually very well done, having the two talk with separate professors who each give wonderful insight that helps each one see the situation differently, leading to them agreeing and strengthening their bond as partners. As poor as the melodrama itself was, the resolution was amazing. However, it's the exact reverse scenario near the volume's close.

The next melodrama is Weiss v. Blake, and some people might say they notice a pattern at this point. But this melodrama is masterfully done, with very good reason for its existence and overall being fairly logical. Blake slips up, and her team learns she was once a white fang member. Weiss, having been victim of the fang for years, hates her because of this, and she runs away. This is perfect, as we learn not only that Weiss did in fact have a rough childhood, it also creates a strange situation for Blake, with her cover now basically blown. Blake runs into Sun, and Blake tells him and the viewers (the latter indirectly) about her time in the fang, leading to some insight into her past and character. Weiss is still reluctant to forgive her or take her back in, as she should be. After Blake and Sun stop Roman (or more like Penny stops Roman), Weiss meets up with Blake again. And the melodrama is resolved because... Weiss 'had time to think.' Like I stated earlier, the ending for this melodrama was pretty terrible, concerning considering this is a season finale.

THE ANIMATION  
After watching the later volumes, any one or multiple of them, the first volume becomes next to unwatchable due to the sheer drop in quality. This may have been due once again to budgeting, but outside of choreography, which still has questionable moments, the show's animation is poorly done overall, with running animations that look more like they belong on a 'try not to cringe challenge' video. It's also worth noting the occasional moment which I will refer to as a 'boop,' which is basically the addition of something more cartoony and 2D for a moment. The first example in the series is when Ruby sees all of the other weapons and temporarily becomes a floating chibi, or when Ruby is thinking about her possible partners (because it could only be Yang, Blake, Jaune, or Weiss and not a complete stranger. That would be statistically unlikely.), and when she hits the tree and has three beowolves run around her head. These moments are few and far between in later volumes if they even DO show up, and for good reason.

CONCLUSION

Do I feel like the show lived up to expectations? Despite not being part of the group expecting anything, I have to say no. The animation and poor writing, as well as a poor theme, definitely screwed the volume over. However, the series remained popular enough for a second season, and thank the lord we got one. One year later.


	2. Volume 2: Three Years Later

**EDIT: fixed a misunderstanding of what Galven told me.**

Hello everyone. Welcome back to "RWBY Years Later." This chapter, of course, will be focusing on Volume 2, so let's get right into it.

THE HYPE

Volume 1 managed to remain popular enough to warrant a second volume, released almost a year to the day after the premiere of the first. In terms of the production team, not much changed besides some new artists and VOs. Oum was still in charge of everything, and still provided the voice of Lie-Ren, so the style didn't change very much. However, a lot more happened this time around. The season was an overall improvement on volume 1, but it still failed to deliver on multiple levels.

THE THEME

The volume 2 theme is a huge step up from volume 1's, and has become the theme by which all others are judged. It's amazing build up with incredible payoff and excellent animation made it my personal favorite opening theme, as well as most of the fanbase in general, to the point where they used the volume 2 theme in the Grimm Eclipse trailer rather than volumes 1 or 3, despite 1 being the one in line with the time frame and 3 being the more modern one. The theme is simply amazing, and promises a slightly darker volume. Unfortunately, most of the volume fails to deliver on this.

FILLER UP

In most of volume 2, the theme is betrayed by the content of the show itself. First, there was Blake potentially not coming to the dance. This arc was, in my opinion, next to useless. I say 'next to' due to Yang's storytime with Blake, where she is developed as a character who's made mistakes and learned from them. She might be bombastic at times, but she also has inhibition and restraint. This scene was beautiful, but I feel it could have still happened under other circumstances. Specifically, I could come up with a plot where the dance is simply absent, and the threat is Blake not performing well due to her lack of sleep, costing her an encounter against the white fang or grimm where her teammates have to cover for her as she almost gets killed, and Yang has to talk her out of this habit due to her caring about the safety of her partner, rather than attempting to get her to come to a stupid dance that means literally nothing. We could have had a much deeper, more satisfying story, and still include the Yang moment, something Oum and the team, unfortunately, didn't capitalize on. And I have a decent idea why.

WRITING AND FIGHTING

Oum and the team had experience with slapstick and choreography, but not much else. When making a plot-driven show, they had no idea what they were doing. RvB didn't become plot driven until season 9 at least, and with RWBY, they tried to repeat that to a lesser degree. This resulted in a first and second volume being written in such a way as to try and please everyone. However, any time anyone tries to please everyone, they end up pleasing no one, and that's what happened with much of the first two volumes. Even the choreography, despite massive improvements in animation, rarely matches anything from the trailers, or the legendary nevermore battle from V1C8. The Cinder battle was very quick and didn't involve much, granted Ruby was in heels. Along the same lines, Ruby is very squishy this volume; Cinder escapes without so much as a scratch, and we learn Ruby can't even match a level 5 bidoof in terms of damage without her weapon. None of the writing in this volume, and very little of the choreography, was all that brilliant. They did have a card in their sleeve, though.

According to fellow FFN user Galven, who claims to have spoken with a Volume 1 writer upon conclusion of the volume, many writers have something called the "Jedi Curve," which is the idea that some misfortune must befall the objectively more powerful characters, and while we almost got a glimpse of this in Volume 2, they sadly didn't deliver, choosing to fill more of the volume with pointless filler and leaving the plot until volume 3.

THE ANIMATION

The animation was a breath of fresh air for the series, removing the mountain of silhouettes and giving color to every extra, even if many were recolors of one another. The animations were also cleaned up a lot, with walking and running greatly improved. We can see from the first time we see Emerald walking, her hips moving back and forth as they naturally would, that this volume is going to look a lot smoother than the last. While there are still some cringe-worthy blunders, such as when Cinder's hopping from roof to roof in Dance Dance Infiltration, but aside from that, the volume is much more visually pleasing. I'm willing to bet the dance was half-written just to show off the strides the animation team had made. There are also fewer 'boops,' but there are still 'boops.' With the debut of Zwei, this was understandable; this cute little corgi joining the crew. But there are moments when it just doesn't feel right.

MOUNTAIN GLENN

This part of the season did make up the final bits of it, taking up the last 4 episodes of the volume, and I'm glad it took up as much space as it did. However, the first part of it... just doesn't sit well with me. They arrive at this ghost town, like a Chernobyl of the world of Remnant, and the first thing we get is... a dog. The first scene in this new location, which promises a dark turn, is slapstick. And once we get into the action, the choreography suffers as the animation is reduced to black lines dividing some squares that show the action happening. When a combat scene that's supposed to relay the high amount of grimm, and thus the persistence and power required that made this mission unavailable to first years, seems more like a visual gag, you've done something VERY wrong. I do like Dr. Oobleck's conversation with each member of the team, and their subsequent soul-searching to ask themselves why they're here, and found this to be a good scene. But I feel like that should have been the primary focus of an earlier episode in the season, leaving this more to explore the world and show off more impressive combat scenes than the ones we got. We get, canonically, a few hours in this landscape before being thrust into the underground, where instead of doing exploring and learning, we waste some time with more slapstick before we get on a train. The amount of potential wasted here could barely fit within the city limits, honestly, and it's such a shame to see it all just out of our reach.

And once we're on the train, team RWBY makes some stupid decisions. Why does Yang have to stay back? Neo hadn't shown off much power yet, and looked about half Yang's size. Why did Yang, the team powerhouse, have to take her on? I get she wanted revenge, but Weiss or Blake should've figured Yang should go ahead in order to simplify any further fight, right? It's like they were TRYING to have each member of the team go up against their worst possible match-up. Yang vs. Neo? Weiss vs. virtually anyone? What were they thinking? This seems to be a first attempt at the Jedi Curve, but then they both manage to get out unconscious yet unscathed. And then we have the Grimm attack on Vale, which is more slapstick and STILL poor choreography. While it does show off team CFVY, that's really all it accomplishes. Roman being arrested could've been done without this scene, and quite frankly, it hardly needed to happen.

CONCLUSION

Overall, while making great strides in animation and making what is almost universally considered the best theme, the volume falls short in many areas. Besides bordering on making you hate team RWBY, it features too much filler and not enough plot, and the plot there is isn't well executed. The series at this point had still yet to deliver on choreography, and just teased the Jedi Curve. While Monty Oum's death near the end of the season led many to wonder if the series was going to continue, in the end, it did, airing season 3 a little more than one year later.


	3. Volume 3: Two Years Later

Hello everyone, and welcome back to "RWBY: Years later." Today, we're looking at volume 3.

 **The Creator**

This was the first season to air after Monty's death, and the last that he directly worked on. As such, the hype did hit a high point, due to everyone wanting to see Monty's final work. Everyone was expecting fight scenes equal to the ones in the trailers, which we still had yet to receive. Unfortunately, it wouldn't be a very good volume overall. And here's why.

Ever since volume one, RWBY had suffered from the George Lucas effect, where the 'visionary genius' is never corrected, and everyone just takes what he says and does it. Monty was the brain father of RWBY, yes, but he wasn't the best at making it. RWBY volumes 1 and 2 both mostly failed because of this, and volume 3 suffers. It's obvious to any writer or creator who watches the show just how many things could be fixed by simply not doing this, or even handing over the reigns entirely.

While I'm not at all happy that Monty died, far from it, I am glad that the reigns were passed for subsequent volumes. This volume is a not a high point in quality, but it sparked a dramatic increase for the next two volumes.

 **The Theme**

The theme this volume definitely points to something darker, but I feel like it's also a noticeable drop in quality from the second. Personally, I feel like the volume 2 theme would have worked just as well for this volume, as well as the first; kind of happy, while also implying something darker. Instead, we have a theme that is a tad too dark, especially for the first half of the season, and barely keeps a consistent tune, a problem which unfortunately carried over into volume 5's theme. Now, this may be a bias on my part; I generally like songs to stay consistent throughout, and get annoyed when they pull out the rug from under the listener. You can use a quiet tune to build up, but it shouldn't be out of the blue like the first line of the volume's theme. We go from a soft piano to heavy metal in a fraction of a second, and the lyrics occasionally desync from the insturmental, or just come across as... off. Remember the last lines before 'when it falls' in the main theme? They're completely off-key and throw the consistency out of whack.

 **The Plot**

For the first half of the volume, the crew decided to use the tried-and-true tournament arc from works such as Beyblade: Metal Fusion and Pokemon. We see RWBY using some of the exact same moves as the mech fight, because who's expecting unique choreography from this show? Ruby, of course, gets next to nothing accomplished, with Weiss gathering the opponents together, Blake charging up Yang, and Yang dealing the final blow to knock out all three remaining at once. We carry on with another battle before we meet Qrow and see Winter. I say 'see Winter' because besides the fight, which was decent, and the conversation, which did help develop Weiss a little, we basically get nothing from her, even in the two later volumes. We learn that all the adults except for Qrow are stupid (like, GENUINELY idiotic), before we get to another tournament fight. And another. Neither of which mean literally anything. There's no development of character or fighting styles; they win like they ordinarily would have, with Yang getting mad, Weiss getting defeated, Neptune doing his freaking job, sun doing virtually nothing, etc. If we'd seen anything of any sort, taking a step back and realizing the flaw of their style in the scenario and adapting to overcome, this could have at least been worthwhile. But it's not. Yang wins by doing the same thing. Weiss wins (kinda) by doing the same thing. Blake helped win by doing literally the exact same thing. Ruby didn't do much of anything despite the fact that she's supposed to. The tournament itself ends up meaning nothing anyway, making it feel more like it was just showing off the combat, which yet again never matched the trailers from before volume 1.

 **Fall of Beacon**

Killing off characters is huge, especially when the audience cares about them. A solid 50% of the fanbase genuinely cried when Penny died, a solid 50% made jokes. I personally had made the mistake of going to a forum without realizing the episode was out, so the death was spoiled for me, but even then, I don't think it would have had much of an impact. Before we could even have time to grieve for a fictional character with about 20 minutes of screentime total (I couldn't find an exact count, but with the 50 second 'salutation' scene, one minute of 'weiss' hair looks lovely,' the three minute dock scene, about eight minutes from the undercover shenanigans around 'painting the town,' the two minutes in volume three before the battle, and the 3.5 mintues (give or take) of the battle with Pyrrha, you have about 18.5 minutes. And we're supposed to care... why? We know she's a robot, so it's not literal death, and before any of us can start crying, crap hits the fan. If you're going to do a character death, do it right. The same problem is repeated, much worse, with Roman, and Pyrrha's moment is cut off by deus ex machi- I mean, silver eyes. 80% of the volume's events, the tournament, the maiden drama, the 'should weiss stay in beacon,' all of it, means literally nothing. And it feels less like a twist, and more like pulling the rug out from under us by having wasted our time. It wasn't completely wasted, though; we did get volume 4 nice and set up, but on its own, volume 3 is one of the worst yet.

 **The Animation**

This was the last volume to use poser 11, and the team definitely made the most out of it. This volume's animation was the best yet, and is a contender for the best to date depending on who you ask. It's clear the show had come a long way, and the animation style was absolutely gorgeous. If this volume had any redeeming aspects, this is it. There are a few 'boops' occasionally, but for the most part, the animation is consistently well-done.

After the cliffhanger the show left us on, everyone wanted volume 4. And we got it, one year later.


	4. Volume 3: One More Thing

I just remembered something I neglected to mention in the volume 3 chapter, so here I go.

So, in volume three, we start the season with a tournament arc, and everyone from Penny to Pyrrha to Sun to Jaune to RWBY is competing. We get a few fight scenes, which once again STILL let the trailers keep the #1 spot in choreography, and then we get a big twist. Now, after I wrote the volume three chapter, I realized something, and I went back to a few episodes to look for something in particular, something very important.

And I never found it.

And that sucks, because it's the ONE THING that could've made the tournament arc worth it:

Character motivation.

I never found any implied or outright stated motivation from any member of teams RWBY, JNPR, SSSN, whatever Penny's team is, or any other team except for CMNE (Carmine; Cinder, Emerald, Neo, and Mercury). Why does Weiss want to compete in the tournament? For glory? For fun? For some sort of prize that was never mentioned, even in the WoR? It's especially confusing once you consider Blake's situation. "Yeah, I'm trying to not get noticed by people who remember me despite the fact that my only change in appearance was a bow that Adam sees right through later. Hows about I go on live television in front of at least half of Remnant's population, likely including Adam himself?" I mean, is Blake SUPPOSED to be the biggest idiot her side of galactic center? Ruby has no motivation. Penny... okay, Penny might have been using the tournament as a test run, but what about anyone on team JNPR? Yang, maybe it was fun, but we can't be too sure.

If we as the audience have absolutely no clue what's at stake or why the MAIN CHARACTERS are doing the things they're doing, that's bad writing. Period.

RWBY always seems to have had this problem, but the series is also known for getting better with time.

The plot is good as of V3C6.

The soundtrack is good as of V1C7.

The choreography is good as of V4C6.

The theme is good as of Volume 2, and hasn't been as good since.

The animation is good as of V3C1.

Yeah, I just wanted to include this bit that I missed in the last chapter. Volume 4's chapter should come out soon. Thanks for waiting!


	5. Volume 3: Sacrificing the Plot

At the end of volume 3, Pyrrha goes to the top of the tower to fight Cinder. Now, no one says that this was a safe move, but many people say that it was a noble sacrifice. Unfortunately, I have to disagree. Here's why.

When someone makes a sacrifice, they are trying to get something in return for their life. Maybe they want to take someone down with them. Maybe they want to buy some time for everyone else. Maybe they didn't choose too, but because of some unforseen accident now have to. Maybe they're trying to save someone, or multiple someones, at the cost of themselves. Pyrrha knew she couldn't beat Cinder; she'd just taken down Ozpin and had the maiden powers, and Pyrrha of all people should know how to pick her battles. She's a good fighter, but she's not cocky. Pyrrha's smart like that. So let's take a look at Pyrrha's 'sacrifice'.

Did Pyrrha perhaps want to take Cinder down with her? This would be reasonable, if there were any way to do so. Pyrrha, once again, at least SHOULD know that she can't beat Cinder, so trying to sacrifice herself for this reason would be idiotic. This means that she is either stupid, or this isn't the goal of her sacrifice. Let's move on.

Is she buying people time? While she can't beat Cinder, she could hold her off long enough for other people to get away. Except there's a problem. Cinder's just kind of chilling at the top of the tower. She's not really posing a direct threat to anyone at the moment. Everyone can basically escape just fine. See, the Fall of Beacon wasn't about slaughtering the weak: it was about taking down the strong who refused to leave the school, along with the school itself. We saw many people escape scot-free in chapter 10. So, it's a better move if everyone just escapes now, including Pyrrha, seeing as Cinder, once again, isn't a direct threat. So this obviously isn't the reason, unless, again, Pyrrha is an idiot.

Maybe something happened that forced her too? Well, no. Again, Cinder's just chilling at the top, and Pyrrha has every opportunity to get away with everyone else. She makes the sacrifice of her own free will. So, this isn't it either.

Maybe she's saving someone? Who's there to save? Ozpin was already dead, and Cinder, ONCE AGAIN, wasn't threatening anyone else. So this obviously isn't the reason.

There is one reason I didn't list before, which could be revenge. This would make sense, if Pyrrha were the kind of person to seek vengeance. Of course, she's not. So this isn't it either.

So why in the lord's name did Pyrrha sacrifice herself? Well, there's a simple answer, and we can find this answer from an unlikely source. Specifically, part of the apparent inspiration for volume 3's ending came from Halo 3. Halo 3, while an absolutely great game with a good story in my opinion, is guilty of manipulating the story to result in the death of a character. Why did Miranda Keyes have to go rescue Johnson at the ark's control room alone? Couldn't a bunch of marines have done it, better might I add? Why did Johnson go to light the ring while Chief guarded the empty hallway?

This problem with Halo 3's story, specifically it's character deaths, is carried over into Pyrrha's arc. So, there we have it. It wasn't anything to do with Pyrrha as a character; it was the writers, clearly not understanding that any sane person would have used the time spent with Cinder NOT attacking them to escape, not send their best warrior to die at her hand. The writers, wanting to elicit sadness, falsely manipulated the story in order to result in her death and silver-eyes-ex-machina. Pyrrha's death is disappointing for the same reasons Johnson's and Keyes' were.

I think it could have been interesting if the main loss in the Fall of Beacon was the school itself. If Pyrrha was in Volume 4. Don't let her get out unscathed, of course. The jedi curve exists for a reason. But it might have been interesting. But alas, I'm forced to remember "Pyrrha's Sacrifice," as "Pyrrha's Suicide."


	6. Volume 3: This is the last one I promise

Here's my plot for the volume 3 finale. As you all might know, I recently ranted about how Pyrrha's sacrifice was unreasonable and stupid, as well as unneeded. So, that got me thinking: how could we do this right, while still killing off Pyrrha? And I think I got it.

After the whole maiden vault shenanigins, Ironwood calls Pyrrha, who he informs of a bomb located in x portion of the school. Ironwood tells her that they can't let the school fall into enemy hands, so they are going to destroy it. Secretly, the purpose of this is to bury the relic, but we learn this much later in the series. Pyrrha and Jaune arm the bomb, and as the timer starts, but Pyrrha realizes that Cinder and the white fang will try to disarm the bomb. She knows she won't be able to beat them all, but she also knows she can hold them off just long enough. After sending Jaune away and ordering everyone to get away via her scroll, Pyrrha takes a combat stance as the doors are broken down. As everyone flies away on the airships, they watch the school in horror. Meanwhile, Cinder has come to disarm the bomb herself after many of the white fang grunts are taken down. She and Pyrrha duke it out, and Pyrrha still loses. However, as Cinder looks to the bomb, she sees the timer hit 0:00. The students on the airship watch as an explosion levels the school, leaving nothing but a pile of rubble. Ruby meets up with Jaune and asks where Pyrrha is. He says nothing, only looking towards what once was Beacon. Ruby understands, with tears in her eyes. The two sit together, looking towards the school. The episode then cuts to a couple months later, with RNJR departing for Mistral. Everything is basically the same after that.

Feel free to tell me your thoughts, I just feel like this could have been a better way to kill off Pyrrha.


	7. No specific volume: Blake is awful

Okay, I need to get this off my chest.

Blake is, without any shadow of a doubt (no pun intended), the WORST character in RWBY. Both morally, and how she's written.

 **MORALLY  
**

You have to love how, after hearing Yang's story about how her recklessness almost got herself and Ruby killed, she attempts to take the moral high ground knowing full well the only thing her parents are worrying about is her. She's stupid, as shown when she goes on LIVE TELEVISION WITH MINIMAL DISGUISE IN FRONT OF MILLIONS; she's cowardly, as evidenced by the times she's run away; she's self-righteous, borderline bratty, and the list of traits you can throw at Blake just goes on and on. She may be a protagonist, but she's no hero.

 **WRITING**

Oh, good lord.

Look.

When you can describe a character with a single trait, and nothing is left out of that description, THAT'S A POOR CHARACTER. This can work with minor characters, but one of the main four? No, Blake doesn't get a pass.

Yang is a party girl... but she's determined. But she's motherly. But she's tough. But she's witty. But she's easily provoked. But she's flirtatious. Yang has a myriad of personality traits, none of which interfere with another, but all of which are independent of each other. Yang is a good character.

Ruby is a weapon geek... but she's optimistic. But she's inspiring. But she's a dork. But she's a warrior. But she's fun. See this? See how I can apply a load of terms to Ruby, none of which give the whole picture? Ruby is a good character.

Weiss is a brat... but she's self aware. But she's determined. But she's rebellious. But she's sarcastic. But she's complicit. But she's 4'10". But she's entitled. But she's borderline abused. But she's a fighter. But she's willing to change. Weiss is the BEST character.

Blake is a faunus... but nothing. No facet of her backstory or personality is independent of this fact. You can describe her in this one word and you've got her down to a T. She's quiet and reserved because being a faunus drove her to the white fang, and being with them and leaving them made her that way. She's stupid because she was influenced by Adam's White Fang. Because she is a faunus. See this? See how Blake can be described perfectly in one word? You know what we call that?

BAD WRITING.

Tl;dr: Blake sucks and I hope they kill her off in volume 6.


	8. Goodbye, RWBY

The show itself has dropped in quality severely, and in addition to that, the fanbase of the show is incredibly toxic. I made a reddit post criticizing Bumbleby and how I felt it was, effectively, the lesbian equivalent of Kirisuna (Kirito and Asuna from SAO). When I hit 'post,' I had 475 Karma. An hour later, 393, with numerous furious comments, and when defending my beliefs, was repititively deemed 'homophobic' to the point that I was eventually banned from the subreddit for a week because of it. Upon seeing this, I began to ponder my feelings on the series.

I have a priority tier list when it comes to merits of a show, that being:

1) Characters,  
2) Writing,  
3) Sound design (including Voices and Soundtrack),  
4) Animation.

I used to believe RWBY did the fourth well, but many instances of bad animation and teleportation exist which I cannot help but notice, hindering it in this regard.

I don't particularly care for RWBY's soundtrack, and I can count all of the tracks that I like on one hand. The voices are decent, though I do have issues with how RT handled the Vic situation.

The writing of RWBY is strange, and while it has given me some good ideas, it's a bit of a mess, with the maidens basically forgotten about post-V5 despite apparently being a major story element. Cinder has powers, but that's about it. Qrow didn't even seem concerned about the maidens at all.

The characters are all either wastes of screen time or wasted potential.

I have come to a conclusion.

Between the show itself and the fanbase, I can no longer consider myself a fan of the show.

It's a shame, as this series was what got me into writing, which has since led to my being accepted into University on a Film major. But, like many others, I'm moving on.

I may continue my main story, I may not, but regardless, I won't be joining you all in observing the journey of Team RWBY.

I'll see you all around.


	9. Better Finale

Okay, so I gave a very barebones summary of why I have grown to dislike RWBY. However, I don't feel like that was good enough, not for what I'd done so far. So, let me try again at criticizing this show one last time.

I discovered the show in 2016 following my having watched the Yang vs Tifa Death Battle, the first new episode after my first exposure to the show being "Never Miss a Beat." I liked the show for more than three years, but for numerous reasons, I have dropped it entirely.

THE CHARACTERS

This show has a lot of characters. The wiki has 91 character pages- NINETY-ONE. How many of those characters are good? I would argue maybe three, those being Qrow, Maria, and Weiss. Everyone else has a LOT of wasted potential. Let's go through a FRACTION of them:

Ruby Rose: I'll admit, Ruby became a good character in volume 6. However, that's SIX VOLUMES TOO LATE for your main protagonist to become compelling. She was wishy-washy in volume 5, trying to talk to Emerald instead of just fighting her during the Battle at Haven. The first half of volume 4 was stolen from her by Jaune, and the second half was stolen by Ren and Nora. She had the best scene in volume 3, but nothing else. Volume 2 saw everybody except her getting character development and vital screen time. Volume 1 was bad for everyone, Ruby especially, and her introversion disappeared going into volume 2 for basically no reason. These problems all lead up to a main protagonist who is mediocre at best, and took six volumes to reach THAT peak.

Weiss Schnee: A good character with organic growth and change. She's the best character in the show simply because she's an OK one.

Blake Belladonna: Quick note before we begin: where did her being a bookworm go? That trait was dropped completely after volume 1. But do you know what traits weren't dropped? Impulsiveness, idiocy, and many a time contradicting herself because the writers treat Blake's character like a river, flowing with whatever turn benefits the story at the moment. Does she need to not "want to fight anyone" so we have a conflict in the short term? Sure, we'll do that. Oh, but "who says [she's] done fighting?" This problem is most apparent in volume 4, and sticks throughout v5, but it shows up many a time earlier, most notably in the scene where team RWBY talks about Yang v. Mercury. "I'll forgive you if you apologize." "No." "Okay I forgive you." She suffers the most from RT's approach to writing.

Yang Xiao Long: Yang had three different introductions: her trailer, the end of the series premiere, and the initiation, and all of them gave a different idea of who she was. The trailer showed her as a hard-A who didn't at all mind a fight. The premiere showed her as a bubbly big sister. Initiation showed her as a cool girl, the type who wore shades. Honestly, she was one of the better characters, but still not great due to having the same tendency as her sister to drop personality traits, losing the second personality mentioned above before volume 2 and the third before volume 4. She had so much potential to be so much more, but none of it matters because the writers didn't use it. I've never seen a character with as many fan rewrites as her, honestly, and all of them are better than what we got.

I'm not going to touch JNPR because I simply didn't care about them. The show didn't give me a reason to besides "hey, they're moderately funny. At times. On occasion. And so we have a character to expend for some quick and easy sadness."They're side characters at best.

See how I only had ONE CHARACTER in the main cast to say anything good about? Notice how that character wasn't even the single main one? That's called bad writing.

THE ANIMATION

There's an hour-long video going over errors in JUST the Battle at Haven. There's a 15 minute video covering all the errors in the first fight of volume 4.

Here's the problem: the show is animated in 3D, but doesn't make use of any of the advantages of 3D until a fight comes along. And MANY of the problems come from positioning and layering in a 3D environment. So all of this could be solved by simply animating in 2D and just using rotoscoping to emulate 3D.

"Oh, but RT's a small company, they can't afford to animate via rotoscoping!" Bull. A random guy on You Tube singlehandedly made this vid called "Crimson Alpine" with rotoscoping. He doesn't have ANYWHERE NEAR the budget RWBY does, but guess which looks better? If RWBY utilized that style instead of what they're currently doing, half their animation problems would disappear. They could be 2D emulating 3D, which looks better than the 3D emulating 2D that they're doing now.

Oh, and it always kills me when they zoom in on the bullets just to maker sure that you see that they don't know how bullets work. That's right, folks: guns in Remnant fire bullets STILL IN THE CASING. Wait, no they don't! The red trailer shows all of the cases falling at the end! And the volume 4 premiere follows a bullet with no casing at all! This problem is EXCLUSIVE to volumes 5 and 6! Who got fired for that?

THE MUSIC

"But ShakeNBake! The show has good music, doesn't it?" Compared to WHAT is the RWBY soundtrack good?

Portal? Nope, nothing from RWBY matches "Want you Gone," "Die Cut Laser Dance," "Cara Mia Addio," "Music of the Spheres," "Still Alive," "I'm in space," "Triple Laser Phase," or "Four Part Plan."

Phineas and Ferb? "Ain't Got Rhythm," "Give Me A Grade," "Way of the Platypus," "Perry the Platypus," "Time Spent Together," "Rubber Bands, Rubber Balls," "Evil Love." RWBY can't match that.

Halo? From just the third game, "Another Walk," "Roll Call," "Warthog Run," "Never Forget," "Tribute," "Farthest Outpost," "Behold a Pale Horse," "Reconciled," "Keep What You Steal," and many others, and again, that's just from the third game. Add other gems from throughout the series like "Sacred Icon Suite 2," "Deference for Darkness," "Epilogue" (from Reach or 2, take your pick), "Heavy Price Paid,"and MANY others, and RWBY is absolutely NOT touching that.

Code Lyoko? "Beautiful World," "Virtualization," "A World Without Danger," "Moment of Sorrow," "William Theme," "The Factory," "The Hermitage," "Fight," "Kadic Mornings." RWBY can't match those at its peaks.

Doctor Who? "Infinite Potential," "I am The Doctor," "All the Strange, Strange Creatures," "This is Gallifrey," "Hologram," "The Shepherd's Boy," "A Good Man," "Vale Decem," "Doctor Who" (any version, take your pick). Need I continue? Too bad, two more.

Avatar: The Last Airbender? "Agni Kai," "Reincarnation," "The Avatar," "Destiny," "Final Agni Kai," "The Sun Warriors," "Rebirth," "Peace," and basically the entire soundtrack of that series would like to have a word with you.

Steven Universe? "Love Like You," and... that's actually about it, Steven Universe has a pretty crap soundtrack too.

Just for the heck of it: Chuck and Friends? "Friends to the Finish." Screw you, it was the only thing on late at night while I was in Ireland. And the theme is better than any of RWBY's except for MAYBE volume 2.

RWBY has better music than Steven Universe and the Hip Hop genre, but that's it, and that's the lowest bar there is. "Time to Say Goodbye" and "I Burn" have solid first verses, and those are all we get to hear of those songs, so I suppose they're good, but the only other good song is "Boop," and that's soundtrack exclusive, not even being heard once in the actual show. Volume 2's theme is by far the best opening theme of the six, and I don't think it's coincidence that it's also the shortest. Gravity Falls has a 40 second intro theme. Doctor Who's theme, at least in the modern era, is about the same length. Phineas and Ferb has an intro a bit longer, clocking in at 55 seconds. Code Lyoko's intro, including the title card, is 52 seconds. I'm sorry, why does RWBY V6 need a NINETY FIVE SECOND THEME? Take the Phineas and Ferb theme, and place the Gravity Falls theme right after it, and the two COMBINE to match the length of that. V5's is 5 seconds shorter, V4's theme is 85 seconds, V3 is 80, V2 is 55, and V1 is 65. WHY ARE THEY ALL SO LONG? If they're going to be that long, make sure they're good! All of themes except for V2 more than overstay their welcome, and after hearing it maybe three times, you're going to skip it every episode after that. With Doctor Who, the average episode is 45 minutes, so the 40-second theme takes up just under 2% of the episode. With RWBY, episode lengths jump around, but the general length in V4-V6 is around 16 minutes. So, you take V6, and you express the length of the theme as a percentage of the episode's total runtime, and it's NEARLY TEN PERCENT. Why is such a long theme necessary?

"Oh, but if you listen to the lyrics, you learn about the characters!" Okay, how about the ACTUAL VISUAL MEDIUM THAT THESE SONGS PARTIALLY APPEAR IN tell me those things instead of forcing me to look up the full version of any given song? Oh, wait, it largely does and there's thus no purpose in looking up the full song? Huh.

THE WRITING

I'm going to make this VERY brief. Rooster Teeth has made a niche in action and comedy. They should NOT have tried to make a plot-driven show. When I find less fault in the story of Marvel: Ultimate Alliance, you've done something horrendously wrong. At least in that game, the bad writing circles back around to a point where it's ENJOYABLY bad, what with the "Masters of Evil" and everyone legit having an evil laugh. Even when you ARE thinking about that game's story critically, you'll enjoy what it does well, mainly its dialogue, and laugh at what it doesn't. RWBY doesn't have the same effect. It isn't 'so bad it's good,' it's just bad. The maidens? Remember how important they very suddenly became? Well, we won't give them a passing mention in V6. The show just keeps dropping aspects of itself, and doesn't add enough good to reconcile. The addition of Bumbeby was fairly popular, but here's a million dollar question: why not get them together in the beginning of volume 3? In the show as is, they've only had three real scenes together since the end of V3, so not a lot would be missing. The two would get together, and the fall of Beacon would tear them apart. After they find each other again, they have to fall in love all over again, choosing to forgive and to continue onward. Their being together earlier makes everything else, from the Yang v. Mercury talk, to the first Adam fight, to Yang's anger towards Blake in volume 4, to their interactions in volume 6, would have been made better if they'd been a thing earlier. If RT could have just committed to the idea. If Bumbleby was planned, it was planned horrendously, to the point where even someone like me, who doesn't even agree with homosexuality as a practice (though I don't believe there should be any sort of ban on it, for similar reasons as to why I don't believe in a ban on drugs), can look at this and say "here's how this could have been done better." I'm not sure if it IS a ploy to salvage their falling ratings by preying on the single demographic most starved for content, and thus more tolerant of table scraps, but it definitely comes across as it. The lore of Remnant is decently interesting, but so is Halo's lore, and RWBY seems to borrow a lot from that franchise, which has more lore to begin with anyway. What's the RWBY equivalent of Offensive Bias? The Arks, Lesser or Greater? It's a great fanfiction sandbox, don't get me wrong, but the lore's not as interesting on its own.

All this is why I left. I looked at the show objectively and found too many faults. I found other shows, Code Lyoko most specifically, which had what I wanted in greater amounts, and don't have the accessibility problems RWBY had in V6.

I've moved on.

See You Starside.


End file.
